Headed North

I can't believe how far we've come. When I was a kid I'd have never seen myself where I am right this minute. Yall will not even believe this... we're driving north on I-75 in hopes of seeing some colorful leaves and actually getting to wear coats and I am on the COMPUTER CONNECTED to the World Wide Web. See the headlights in the background? That's the Southbound traffic...and I'm blogging!

The laptop and I are sandwiched between my S-I-L, Lauren and my Mom. Behind us, Annabelle is surrounded by all our stuff. We took out the other back seat and the Tahoe is packed from floor to ceiling and all around Belle. There isnt room for anything else.... I don't know what we'll do if we find a treasure we NEED... we may have a little something up our sleeve though...

And by stuff I mean a ton of it. The pilot and co-pilot are manning the Nuvi, the steering wheel, the air controls (that work periodically) and the stolen trash bag.

We're only 4 hours into the trip and it's already promising to be a good one.

We got the car loaded and pulled out around 5:30 this afternoon. According to Nuvi, our arrival time would be a few minutes shy of midnight. As of this moment, Nuvi's changed her mind and it's looking more like a couple minutes shy of 1:00 a.m. The causes for the delay can be blamed on "rumbly tumblys" and mommy brain. We'd been in the car about 45 minutes and decided that the "fall snacks" I'd prepared were not going to be enough for the 6 hour trip. We made the traditional stop at the Arby's...
Grammy & AB at Arby's. Both sporting their "booty suit pants"...tradition in our family is to travel comfortably. Ya'll will have to take my word, that I was wearing mine, too...Three generations of "Booty Suits" were on this trip. Too bad it was 85 degrees is Florida, because really, a booty suit isn't complete without the matching jacket... ha... Lauren's still searching for a "suit" so she can join the tradition...

When we got back in the car, we got Annabelle all set up with the PocketDish and she could enjoy Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins episodes.


Another hour or two up the road and AB decided it was time for a bottle. No worries, Mommy had one packed and already had the water just the right temperature and was keeping it warm in the bottle warmer. This aint my first rodeo. After her nighttime bottle, only one thing can happen next... it's night-night time. As I started digging for "silky" I got that terrible feeling in my stomach. You know, the "oh-no, I forgot Devin's undershirts" or "oh-no, I forgot Devin's socks" or the "oh-no, I forgot Devin's BOXERS"... oh, yes, I've forgotten all of those before (on different trips though)...needless to say, I've only done it once for each though... I'm a firm believer in living and LEARNING... ANYWAY, the all-familiar, "I spent all day packing and making sure we have everything, but I forgot that ONE important thing" feeling set in... Silky was no where to be found. The cry got louder and Uncle Adam punched in "Wal-Mart" on the Nuvi. Praise the Lord, there was one in 2.3 miles! As we followed the directions, we became a little confused. Where we're from Wal-Mart has other "things" around it and there's enough lights in the parking lot to make you think the "Mother Ship" has landed right there. The road we were on was a back country road with wide open pastures on each side and there were no lights---it was pitch black. Finally, we saw some lights, only they were flashing and in a straight line....When we'd reached the destination, we realized that Nuvi had taken us to "Wal-Mart Way" which was located right next to a small airplane landing strip in the middle of no-where, Tifton, Georgia. DW took the words right out of my mouth when he asked, "Who in the heck names a road "Wal-Mart Way" when there's no Wal-Mart on it?!?!?" After a little more punching on the Nuvi, we made it to what I call a "main road" and found some lights, stores and the much needed Wal-Mart. We headed in with hopes of finding a replacement silky. Thankfully, the Lord's favor was upon us and we found a brand new silky that is identical to one of Annabelle's. When she saw it, she got so excited and wouldn't let it go. At least until she'd found something else she NEEDED. We spotted the cutest pair of pajamas with little ballerinas on them. She grabbed them and wouldn't let them go. Grammy told her she knew she needed them and she'd get them for her, then she offered to hold them for her. Annabelle was having none of that, she needed to hold them. Too cute. Our Wal-Mart purchases also included some snacks and some new chapstick. Because really, who can go in the Wal-Mart and resist getting some snacks or some chapstick? Not I.




We're back on the road again, and Lauren's busted open her 5 lb. bag of peanut M&M's.

Annabelle's already asleep...all she needed was her silky, poor baby girl. I'm trying to get my mind off the fact that my baby is snuggled up with something that hasn't been washed yet and who's prior residence was the germ infested shelves of the Wal-Mart. The rest of us are enjoying some Sweettarts. Adam's "Roll-Back" purchase tonight was a ginormous sized bag of assorted Sweettarts.

Any kind of Sweettart you want, we've got it. That Adam's always thinking of others, let me tell you. After I told him he'd have been better off with a couple rolls of Sweettarts because the individually wrapped ones were going to make for lots of trash in the car, he swiped an extra Wal-Mart bag to serve as our official trash receptacle. We also decided that it was a good thing he came armed with the Halloween pack, because what if by some chance there are some Trick-or-Treaters that wander up to the cabin where we're staying the weekend before Halloween to Trick-or-Treat? Yep, it's a good thing, he got that 362 piece bag.

We don't really have a plan for tomorrow yet, but one travel companion who shall remain nameless has suggested that the consumption of egg salad sandwiches is a good idea. Funny, real funny... considering that I'd rather lick the floor at the Wal-Mart than eat an egg. These trips feel a little like de ja vu... the time and people change, but there's always some brother-sister "love" to be found... ha..

I know one thing I'm doing...getting that silky in the washing machine. I'll be sure to throw in those ballerina jammies, too.

Yep, I feel like busting out in Kathie Lee Gifford's, "If they could see me now"....

All those trips to North Georgia when I was a kid with nothing to do except act like we were smoking and try to get the semi-drivers to honk at us and now, here I am with technology literally sitting in my lap and enough SweetTarts to kill a goat.

Here's to another trip down 75...

~amw~

EDITED TO ADD:

We just stopped for gas and the same person who suggested we eat Egg Salad sandwiches tomorrow went into the store only to return bearing a peace offering.
I can't count the road trips we've all taken over the past 7, nearly 8 years, and we've never been on one without a bag of Neon Sour Gummy worms or Sour Patch Kids. Until Tonight....when we tried to make it right, and buy a bag at Wal-Mart we were disappointed to find that the candy isle was under construction and not all of it was on the shelves. Guess what WASN'T included in the displayed inventory... Doesn't matter now, because we're back in business and on the road again...